Of Mice and Men.

Project.

Of Mice and Men.

Project.

Mental Illness.

In life the shortcomings of others should be forgiven and never held against them, because we weren’t created to be perfect.- Theme. Mental illness can come in many forms, always inflicting the patient and usually the family. When classified as mentally ill, you can range from either being completely disconnected from external reality, or seem just a little “off” to others. In the story “Of Mice and Men," the character Lennie exhibits obvious signs of “Intellectual Disability”. - What most people would call, Mental Retardation. He sees things, hears things and can’t comprehend the damage that he is capable of or has already inflicted. Like a child Lennie assumes that life can reset as he pleases and that George, his companion, will always be there not only in his defense for every action by Lennie, but also as a guide. Like the “master,” George is throughout the story looked at by Lennie from a point of view that is similar to a dog's. Intellectual Disability, also called Intellectual Development Disorder (IDD), sets in before the age of 18. If you have an IQ score below 70, you are mentally retarded. The average adult IQ ranges from 90 to 100, 130-140 is genius or near genius, and if you have an IQ higher than 185 you're 1 in about a million. Einstein's was 165. Here's how IDD works, we are all like machines, some machines work great while others can't determine letters from numbers. As people we all fall victim to the factory that is Evolution. If you are genetically vulnerable to cancer this is no fault to you but is a problem that in this day in age is something with no solution, like most Mental Illness. What this story teaches us is that we can't look at the biological problems of others in such a politically correct way, assuming that we were all by nature automatically created equal. This gives us a false lesson that we can assume everyone to think the same way but if disabled, just on a lower caliber. This is almost never true. Humans are meant to be emotionally stable, empathetic, intelligent, physically active and hederosexual, but we can't guarantee this to happen. Lennie wasn't supposed to have IDD, but what we should except in a rather pessimist way is that he, like many others, doesn't have the neurological capabilities that he would of had if he didn't, like all people, fall victim to fate accidentally chosen for him. As people we are all in the process of universal experience, victim to reality and the course of it, so to leave the best legacy behind we shouldn’t only flourish as human beings, but also make sure to not hold the shortcomings of others against them, through discrimination and hate, but rather to except that in the accident that is life not all beings of essence can exist as equal. By living in a intelligent and melancholy way we can avoid possible existential loneliness.